The Cold Spring ruins in Lebanon County’s remote Stony Valley tell the story of the rise and fall of a once famous luxury resort and purported curative spring.
Cold Spring Township in Lebanon County’s rugged and remote Stony Valley seems like an unlikely place for a luxury resort. But it was once famous as one of the region’s finest summer get-aways, boasting two first class hotels and a never-failing spring rumored to possess curative properties. Join us as we explore the Cold Spring ruins and uncover its fascinating and tumultuous history.
Early History of Cold Spring
Although the robust “never-failing” Cold Spring in the isolated Stony Valley was known for generations among the local native Indians, its history is shrouded in myth and mystery. An unsubstantiated anecdote is told of a Spanish Jesuit priest who suffered a severe attack of rheumatism while traveling near the area in 1775. While laid up at Peter Fisher’s Inn near the Susquehanna River ferry, a group of local Indians advised him to visit the Cold Spring. The beneficent Native Americans escorted the priest to the spring where he was cured of his affliction. As a result, news of the curative waters of “Cold “Virtuous Spring” spread. Whether such an event actually occurred or the story was later manufactured to promote the Cold Spring resort is unknown.
The first Europeans to document their travels through the Stony Vally were Moravian missionaries. At the request of the notable diplomat and interpreter, Conrad Weiser, then Officer of Indian Affairs for Pennsylvania, Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf led a band of Moravians on a peace mission to ease tensions with the local Indian tribes. Zinzendorf named the region St. Anthony’s Wilderness in honor of fellow missionary of Anthony Seyfert. In 1770 Rev. John Cuthbertson, a Reformed Presbyterian missionary, took out the original warrants and patents on the Cold Spring site.
The 1850 Hotel
The property around Cold Spring changed hands several times, and an inn may have operated there prior to 1830. In the 1830s and 40s, the Dauphin & Susquehanna (D&S) Coal Company purchased large tracts of land for mining and constructed a railroad through Stony Valley. With the remote valley now accessible by rail, the D&S built a three-story, twelve room Greek Revival style hotel as a summer resort. The D&S made other improvements to the property, including a bathhouse, and a 3,500-gallon cut sandstone pool fed by Cold Spring. The spring was reported to have a vigorous flow of 130 gallons per minute and a chilly temperature of 48oF.
However, by the mid 1850s the D&S was in serious financial trouble and was forced to sell its properties, including Cold Spring. In 1859 the Schuylkill and Susquehanna (S&S) Railroad assumed the Cold Spring property. After the Civil War, the S&S ran an excursion train from Harrisburg to the hotel. However, Cold Spring struggled to attract visitors. In 1870, it was sold to William Lerch Sr. who made significant improvements and heavily advertised the resort. Under Lerch’s leadership, the hotel blossomed. Unfortunately, the resurgence was short lived. After only four years, Lerch sold the property to the Jesuits who used it as a retreat. The Jesuits only used it for one season then later sold it to a group of investors from Harrisburg in 1880.
The 1880 Hotel Revival
The Harrisburg investors built a new three-story hotel in 1880. The revived resort included numerous improvements such as two new bath houses, a dancing pavilion, lawns for tennis and croquet, billiards, and a bowling alley. The hotel boasted summer visitors from across the northeast. However, this renaissance was also brief. The ultimately unprofitable Cold Spring was sold at a sheriff sale in 1890. The property changed hands several times in the last decade of the 1800s. Marketing shifted to promoting the resort as a health spa, highlighting the benefits of the spring and secluded sylvan valley. But the famed hotel’s cycle of revival and decline finally ended when it was destroyed by fire on September 22, 1900.
Camp Shand and Beyond
After the hotel was destroyed, the Cold Spring property was intermittently used for bottling spring water, hunting and outdoor clubs, and a nature farm. In 1924 the Lancaster YMCA purchased the site as the new location for Camp Shand. The YMCA repurposed many of the improvements, such as turning the bowling alley into lodging and building a mess hall on the foundation of the hotel. The camp flourished throughout the 1920s and 30s.
However, in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s the railroad phased out service to the remote valley, causing logistical difficulties. Additionally, exercises at the nearby Fort Indiantown Gap restricted use of the rough Cold Spring Road over Second Mountain. There were also numerous instances of stray artillery shells from Fort Indiantown Gap landing in the camp. Thus, the YMCA left the camp after the 1942 season and transferred the property to the Pennsylvania Game Commission in 1945. Today, Cold Spring is part of State Game Lands 211.
Exploring the Abandoned Cold Spring Ruins
The Lebanon County Historical Society’s publication Cold Spring Hotel Site: Uncovering its Layers of History, by James C. Logan and James M. Logan is an invaluable resource for exploring the Cold Spring Ruins. It provides a map of the historic site and enriches the experience with a carefully researched history. Armed with our copy, we began our adventure from the State Game Lands (SGL) 211 parking lot at 40.47738, -76.62599, next to a large food plot. Current day parking is approximately at the location of the “Office” on the map.
We passed the gate onto the blue-blazed gravel road. After a minute’s walk, the trail veers off to the right to connect with the Stony Valley Rail Trail. But don’t take it, stay on the gravel road. After a few more minutes we spotted the conspicuous ruins of the hotel retaining wall and caretaker’s house as we approached the square at 40.47734, -76.62900.
The intersection at the center of the site is known as Checker Square. The ruins of caretaker’s house shown above and below are on the east side of Checker Square. Interestingly, the large tree next to the steps appears in photos in Cold Spring Hotel Site: Uncovering its Layers of History. It is an exotic redwood-like evergreen Crypromeria japonica planted by one of Camp Shand’s caretakers in the 1930s.
We found the remains of the 1880 bowling alley, later repurposed as motel-style lodging during the Camp Shand years, in the woods immediately northeast of the Caretaker’s House. Not much more remains than a broken line of stones that would have been the edge of the foundation, several small footings, and a bit of concrete. Likewise, the remaining foundation stones barely outline where the post office once stood.
The conspicuous stone structure to the west of Checker Square is the hotels’ retaining wall. The games lawn is on the terrace above the wall. The two hotels sat in the space in front of the wall, with the 1880 hotel extending behind it. The 1850 hotel closest to Checker Square (right side of photo). The 1880 hotel was built adjacent to the 1850 hotel to the west (left side of photo). You can see the masonry of a circular landscaping bed in the foreground.
We passed through a gap in retaining wall that would have been stairs to the site of the 1880 hotel. Behind it we found an intriguing long L-shaped foundation. This structure housed the kitchen, storage, and ice cellar. It is one of the most intact of the Cold Spring ruins.
The flat space on top of the terrace behind the hotels was the lawn where games were played. Just uphill from the former lawn, we found the stone piers that once held the wooden water tank.
The stairs and foundation in the next two photos are an unidentified structure beyond the west end of the rear retaining wall. Was this a wing of the 1880 hotel? Maybe an amenity such as the dance pavilion?
The unknown building’s stacked stone foundation is remarkably well preserved. The floor is relatively level and parts appeared to be concrete. You can also see a concrete portion of the 1880 hotel’s rear retaining wall in the background of the photo below. The concrete was used to repair the wall in 1925 during the Camp Shand era.
After investigating the ruins at the hotel site, we took a short walk from Checker Square uphill to the old rail line, now the Stony Valley Rail Trail. Amazingly, the Cold Spring Railroad Station survived intact until the 1990. Sadly, it was badly damaged in an act of senseless vandalism. The station met its demise in 1993 when it was completely destroyed in an accident while attempting to relocate it for restoration.
From the old rail line, we returned to the hotel site then headed south on the “Grand Avenue” to the Cold Spring itself. It was easy to find. The spring still flows strongly and is covered by a large metal grate over the foundation of the spring house. A channel leads from the spring to the sandstone block-lined pool. The once famous attraction is now badly overgrown. The channel continues for a short distance past the bathhouse and flows into a marsh surrounding Stony Creek.
A second spring, Magnesia Spring, is hidden in the woods to the west of Cold Spring at 40.47606, -76.62962. There is a path to Magnesia Spring from the Grand Avenue. During our visit, it was marked by orange blazes and ribbons. Although much smaller than Cold Spring, it looks better for the wear, and features steps down into a small pool.
We returned to the parking lot and walked Cold Spring Road to investigate ruins we noticed at Sony Creek on the drive in. These are the remains of the Lake Comey Dam. We climbed the large stone breast that extends south from the stream. From there we could make out the depression that was once the lakebed. A presumably more recent, badly leaning concrete wall is visible in Sony Creek. We took a fisherman’s path upstream of the dam on the northwest bank (the side toward the hotel ruins). The creek that led into a ravine and deep depression that would have been underwater. Although my hiking GPS and Google Maps both show a lake (Dresden Lake) here, there is, in fact, no lake. It must have drained with the demise of the dam. From here, we climbed the ravine and passed through the controlled burn field to return to the SGL lot where we parked.
Although geographically remote on account of the striated ridges and ridges and valleys, Stony Valley is home to numerous ruins including the ghost towns of Yellow Springs and Raush Gap. And of all the historic sites hidden in these woods, Cold Spring is the finest. Most of Cold Spring ruins are easy to find, being located adjacent to trails. However, we highly recommend purchasing a copy of Lebanon County Historical Society’s publication Cold Sprins Hotel Site: Uncovering its Layers of History for exploring the site. One, because it will help you understand what you are looking at. Two, because understanding the story of Cold Spring makes the place come alive far more than from looking at mossy stone foundations.
In addition to the ruins, the landscape of the narrow Stony Valley is beautiful, particularly at the trailhead where you can see the narrow valley wedged between the towering ridges. Although it is not far from cities like Harrisburg and Lebanon, the mountains create a sense of isolation.
The only way to drive to Cold Spring is by the gravel Cold Spring Road over Second Mountain. The road is rough in spots and steep. Note that the slope of Second Mountain toward Stony Valley faces north, so it can have snow and ice even if the southern slope does not. Finally, Cold Spring Road snakes between Fort Indiantown Gap’s ranges, so pay attention to signage when driving through so you don’t inadvertently enter a restricted area.
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